Lithium Batteries Ban

Posted
on February 02, 2016

The Death of Lithium Batteries in Transportation

On January 27,
2016, The ICAO Air Navigation Commission voted to ban lithium ion batteries as
cargo on passenger airplanes. In October
2015, The ICAO Dangerous Goods Panel voted 11 – 7 for more restrictions on
lithium batteries but not a complete ban as cargo on passenger airplanes. It appears the matter will be settled at the
end of this month as the ICAO Council considers a solution.

The Council
consists of 36 member states elected by all member states (Assembly) of ICAO. ICAO was established and authorized by the
United Nations after World War II to be the governing body for the
international transport of dangerous goods by air. ICAO became a Special Agency within the
United Nations. Several others you may
be familiar with are the IMO, WHO, IAEA,
and the WMO to name a few.

The result?
We have one committee within ICAO saying ban lithium batteries as cargo on
passenger airplanes and one committee saying no ban. We’ll find out when the council votes by the
end of this month.

The vote is
really insignificant primarily because nearly every passenger airline in the
United States has already banned the batteries from their aircraft. The United States (FAA), Airline Pilots
Association (ALPA), and a host of others have been fighting for a ban for some
time, not only for passenger aircraft but for cargo aircraft as well.

Why? Lithium Batteries are bad doo doo. They have
this inherent characteristic called, thermal runaway. They blow up and catch fire all by
themselves. And when they do, current
fire suppression systems in the cargo compartments of all airplanes operating
today can’t contain the lithium battery fires.
There have been several documented cases of lithium battery fires
onboard aircraft, most notably, a UPS 747 which was tragically lost in Dubai in
2010.

Lithium Ion Cells and Batteries
prepared in accordance with Packing Instruction 965, Section II, must be
offered for transport at a State of Charge (SOC) not exceeding 30% of their
rated capacity;

Only one package prepared in
accordance to this section may be offered in any single consignment;

Only one package is permitted in an Overpack;

Consignments of these batteries must
be offered separately from non dangerous goods.

Similar
restrictions have also been added to Packing Instruction 968, Section II, for
lithium metal batteries, which have been banned as cargo on passenger aircraft
since 2015.

These
additional restrictions become effective April 1, 2016.

The aviation
community has spoken. It will now be up
to the battery manufacturing industry to come up with viable packaging to
eliminate the significant risk posed by lithium batteries to our health,
safety, or property when transported by air.

Although no
specific date has been suggested, we can expect the lithium battery prohibition
on passenger aircraft to coincide with the aforementioned restrictions on April
1, 2016.